BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The European Union is not prepared to include the role of the bloc's highest court in its post-Brexit discussions with Britain on arrangements for the province of Northern Ireland, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said on Friday.

Sefcovic said, after talks with Britain's Brexit minister David Frost, that the European Court of Justice needed to be an arbiter on the question of trading arrangements with Northern Ireland to protect the EU's single market.

"It's part and parcel of the protocol of Ireland and Northern Ireland," he told a news conference.

"So therefore, it's part of the overall deal we had with the UK. It was not disputed at all until the summer of this year. And therefore for us, this is the topic we are not ready to include in our discussions." (Writing by John Chalmers; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)